Star Tribune keen to sell land near Metrodome

The Star Tribune owns – and wants to sell – its five blocks of land near the Metrodome stadium in downtown Minneapolis. The newspaper’s main building is at 425 Portland Ave. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Publisher hopes to entice ‘Vikings or anyone else’

Four years ago, the Minnesota Vikings agreed to buy five blocks of land from the Star Tribune near the Metrodome stadium in downtown Minneapolis for a reported $45 million.

The Vikings pulled out of the deal amid a tough credit climate for financing. But the Star Tribune would still like to sell its land.

“We’re following the stadium developments closely,” said Michael Klingensmith, publisher and CEO of the Star Tribune. “We’ve made it well known that we think this would be a wonderful place for a new football stadium or associated development.”

The Vikings and owner Zygi Wilf remain adamant about their commitment to a new stadium site in Arden Hills. One of the appeals of the Arden Hills site for Wilf, a seasoned real estate developer, is that the site offers adjacent land for additional development.

A potential combination of the current 20-acre Metrodome site, the Star Tribune parcels and land that Wilf’s group bought in 2007 could create a downtown site of nearly 50 acres.

“Our land is for sale to the Vikings or anyone else who would like to buy it. We own five square blocks here and they are all for sale. We would very much like to sell our land,” Klingensmith said.

Jeff Anderson, a spokesman for the Vikings, said that the team had no comment about the Star Tribune’s desire to sell its land.

“We’re entirely focused on Arden Hills,” Anderson said. “We’re committed to Arden Hills and the deal we’ve worked out with Ramsey County.”

Klingensmith said that the Star Tribune has not retained a broker but that city leaders and the team both know of the newspaper’s desire to sell its land.

Chuck Lutz, deputy director of the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) department, said that one appeal of the Star Tribune land is that a buyer could deal with a single property owner.

“The land is still for sale and it’s five square blocks, 25 acres,” Lutz said. “One could start development there fairly quickly — the Wilfs or anybody. If the Wilfs are looking for additional development land, that’s still available.”

Following a Tuesday legislative hearing on stadium issues, the team has agreed to sit down with Minneapolis leaders for a discussion about potential sites in Minneapolis. Three sites have been floated: the current Metrodome site, the Farmers Market site and the Linden Avenue site.

Minneapolis city leaders have touted redevelopment of the 20-acre Metrodome site as the least expensive stadium option. City leaders have estimated the budget at $895 million for the Metrodome site. All other options top $1 billion.

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf bought three parcels of land near the Metrodome in 2007. The sites are currently home to surface parking. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

“This site is certainly the best economic solution from all economic analysis that I’ve seen,” Klingensmith said.

The Star Tribune’s land includes its main building at 425 Portland Ave. A newer building at 329 Portland Ave. is currently vacant. The bulk of five blocks is made up of surface parking lots. According to Hennepin County property records, the properties have a current combined assessed value of $21.2 million.

The Star Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2009. The newspaper emerged from bankruptcy under new, lender-controlled ownership. Klingensmith began as publisher and CEO in January 2010.

“We don’t have a price in mind. We don’t feel like the value of the land has changed all that much, but we also realize that the market isn’t the same,” Klingensmith said.

He acknowledged that he has not talked recently with the Vikings.

“The team has been exclusively focused on Arden Hills … they certainly are aware that our land is available,” Klingensmith said.

But the area around the Metrodome appears to be the only metro site where Wilf’s group has purchased additional land.

Wilf’s group paid $5 million in May 2007 for three parcels directly north of the Metrodome. The sites at 309 Ninth Ave. S., 300 Ninth Ave. S. and 811 Third St. S. total about 1.9 acres and are home to surface parking lots.

“We do own a couple lots close to the Metrodome,” Anderson acknowledged.

Another notable real estate player owns another site near the Metrodome.

The underground Downtown East Parking Ramp, at 701 Fourth St. S. next to the Metrodome, is owned by Minneapolis Venture LLC, an entity connected to Minneapolis-based Alatus LLC. Alatus has been promoting a casino on Block E, one potential funding source for a new stadium. Bob Lux, a principal with Alatus, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

No meeting time has been set yet for the team and city officials, but all of the involved parties say that it will happen before next Tuesday’s Senate hearing.

“We view it as an informational briefing by the city regarding their potential stadium site,” Anderson said. “We were encouraged to sit down with them and help the city with their analysis” But he said that the Vikings would not identify a preferred Minneapolis site.

For the moment, neither will city officials.

“What the mayor has said is we would first like to engage the Vikings in a conversation. What we’d like to do from there is figure out what site makes the most sense,” Lutz said. “We’ll see where the conversation goes.”

Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson echoed that sentiment.

“We really want to hear from the Vikings as far as what their thoughts are,” Johnson said.

Johnson recalled the Vikings’ previous interest in the Metrodome site.

“I think what changed is the economy went in the tank,” Johnson said in reference to the scuttled Star Tribune land deal in 2007.

At the western edge of downtown, developer and broker Chuck Leer has been working to promote the Farmers Market site. Since Tuesday’s hearing, Leer said that he had been contacted by the city.

“I got a call from Chuck Lutz and we’re just trying to make sure that the city has all of the information that they need to move forward with the Vikings,” Leer said.

Leer is working to strike representation agreements with landowners. So far, 11 of the 14 landowners in the Farmers Market area would be willing sellers, he said.

“I met with the landowners as recently as this morning and we’re continuing to move forward,” Leer said.

With or without the Vikings, Klingensmith said that Star Tribune has more real estate than it needs.

“It’s frankly more space than we need,” Klingensmith said of the company’s current headquarters.

“We would like our balance sheet better if it had less debt and less land,” he added.

3 comments

Good Grief!
The Vikings, owner Zygi Wilf, Minneapolis, and the state of Minnesota are idiots if they don’t take advantage of this property. They could integrate the new stadium with the light rail just like was done for the Twins stadium.
It makes the facility more available to fans, reduces the vehicles on the roads, reduces the amount of parking required, and, drum roll, reduces the pollution generated by all the traffic getting to and supporting the events held there.
The infrastructure is in place to support the 100,000 people who will be in there when the Vikings play in the Super Bowl on their home field.
With this available, there is NO competitive reason to put the stadium anywhere else.

After reading this I really like it. I am in favor of about any site as long as it is in Minnesota but this is starting to make a lot of sense. Zygi was interested once, I hope he takes a look at it again. He needs to come off of his inflexible leaning towards Arden Hills. Build the new place at the Dome site and buy up some of the Star Trib land for tailgating. I will come.

The Star Tribune has been fooling the public with their articles surrounding ALL stadium talk. They are crooked as hell and printing article after article to help sway the new stadium back to the Dome site. The Dome site area is the most conjested, broken up piece of CRAP area I’ve even seen for a stadium…..and i’ve been all around the country to many stadiums. The Star Tribune needs to pull up their pants and start reporting the news instead of playing political games trying to keep the money rolling in. Want to know why the Wilfs didn’t buy the land 4 years ago? Because the Star Tribune wanted 47 million for it! After it was appraised at 21 they wanted 47 million freaking dollars. Gee, i wonder why the Dome site is always pushed in the paper. They get money from parking and they’ll get money from the sale of their land. THESE are the idiots reporting the NEWS to the people of MN too. This whole thing has been a tragic political dog and pony show by the Strib. Shame on you Star Tribune. I hope they build gigantic walls around the new stadium site and your lots are all empty on game days. You charge too much to park there and you cram people in like sardines. You don’t even use the traditional parking lines…you have parking attendants in there cramming trucks and tailgaters in to rake in the money. Karma will come back to you people. The Dome site BLOWS for NFL football. Worst site in the entire country bar none.